The EcoCenter at Heron's Head Park is a landmark environmental education center in San Francisco dedicated to environmental justice and teaching about sustainability in the built environment. The center features: an off-grid solar array, an on-site wastewater treatment system with a constructed wetland; 15K gallons of rainwater storage; vegetative roof; reused and recycled building materials, and an array of sustainable landscape and land management solutions.

Friday, May 24, 2013

Today sixty 6th graders from Aptos Middle School spent the day at the EcoCenter and Heron's Head Park. CCSF faculty and student interns along with Tracy and Austin from Rec and Park led four activities on energy, wetlands and wastewater treatment, a scavenger hunt style tour of the EcoCenter, and bird surveying in the park. The energy activities included manipulating a solar panel to power a water fountain, making a solar chocolate fondue with fresh organic fruit and organic fair trade chocolate. Students were also able to make themselves smoothies with a pedal powered blender. Another highlight of the day for many of the kids was viewing the constructed wetland and pond organisms under the microscope and guessing which organism was which and their roles in the food web. The day was a long one - it began at 8 am with CCSF students preparing for the day. The Aptos students arrived at 10:30 am and stayed until 2:30 pm. The afternoon was followed by the Sust 91 end of semester "Presentation of Learning" and potluck.